Comments on "Culture and Politics - Rivals or Allies?"

During Minister of Culture Milan Kňažko's term in office, Slovakia's Ministry of Culture funded projects that go far beyond what was traditionally understood under the term in Slovakia and Central Europe. The policy, if sustained, would engender discussions of what is Slovak culture and how it meshes in with the concept culture of the sum total of the country of Slovakia, which could touch on the precarious Central European interplay between the concepts of ethnicity and citizenship that underlies the role of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia

Slovakia and NATO: No Partnership for Peace with the Opposition

When the time approached for Slovakia to be offered NATO membership, its former ruling party HZDS led by Vladimír Mečiar turned around and warmed up to the idea only to be criticized by the new government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, a long-time pro-NATO enthusiast. Opinion polls, however, showed the Slovaks to be less interested in joining NATO than other European nations for practical, contemporary, and historical reasons. In an unorthodox development, the overwhelmingly pro-NATO media and NGOs accepted government money to extol the advantages of NATO membership in their editorial output

The Uncommon Language: Bratislava, Budapest, and Brussels

Slovakia passed an updated Law on the State Language in 2009, which created a protracted diplomatic controversy between Bratislava and Budapest, and agitation among activists and politicians in Slovakia. Some of the rhetoric became more agitated than the usual mode of communication in Central Europe, the wording of the law clouded the issue of Hungarian and other minority language use. The article discusses aspects of both

Historical and National Background of Slovak Filmmaking

Preceded by Slovak-related shorts, Slovak filmmaking started with the 1921 feature Jánošík (dir. Jaroslav Jerry Siakeľ) funded by the Slovak-American company Tatra Film from Chicago. Subsequent films mostly focused on folklore (including another feature about Jánošík in 1935, dir. Martin Frič) and newsreels until topics concerning World War II and the onset of communism launched a period of increased production, but also struggle with censorship. The Sun in a Net (dir. Štefan Uher, 1962) helped launch the Czechoslovak New Wave (Prague New Wave, Czech New Wave), and The Shop on Main Street (dir. Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1964) became the first Central European film to receive an Oscar. The 1960s also saw socially committed and experimental filmmaking, which was reduced during the following decade of more restrictive censorship. The 1980s brought a enormously popular blockbusters, some of which combined popular appeal with cultivated content, while others foreran the collapse of communism by accommodating pop culture and seeking ticket sales

Historians in Slovakia on President Tiso: Responsible to What Nation?

Historians in Slovakia generally publish critical accounts of the country's President Jozef Tiso during World War II. An underlying factor in the limited arguments brought up by some in his favor is a difference between the characteristic Central European concept of a nation (narod, ethnic nation) and the concept of a political nation (citizenry) prevalent in American sources. Slovak opinion polls, in the meantime, continue to show negative ratings of President Jozef Tiso

Highwayman’s Life: Extant Documents about Jánošík.

Juraj Jánošík, a highwayman in the Habsburg monarchy in the early 18th century, became a Slovak, Polish, and Czech legend more a century after his execution. While modified, the legend entered historiography as a representation of Jánošík's actual life. There is, however, scanty or no evidence for some of the assertions accepted as descriptions of Jánošík's exploits and motivations, additional occasional confusion stems from cross-cultural Slovak-Polish misunderstandings. The article gives an account of the available hard and soft evidence and cross-cultural errors

Teaching Slovak Studies in Slovak-American Postcommunal Environment

The permanently-established Slovak Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh partly benefits from the lingering awareness of Slovak pre-World War I immigrant heritage in south-western Pennsylvania, but its target audience is the sum total of the university’s students. An initial incentive from several fraternals, teaching a variety of courses that meet multiple graduation requirements, high student course evalua-tions, and building awareness through the Slovak Studies Program website (http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba) are among the contributing factors to the program’s status and continued success

Peripapillary microcirculation in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy

Purpose In this prospective observational comparative case series, we aimed to study the peripapillary capillary network with spectral‐domain optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT‐A) in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). Methods Twelve eyes of six individuals, of these three males (five eyes) after clinical onset of visual impairment were imaged by OCT‐A with scans centred on optic discs. Control group consisted of 6 eyes with no visual impairment. Results The three affected individuals lost vision 6 years (at age 22 years), 2 years and 3 months (at age 26 years) and 1 year and 2 months (at age 30 years) prior to OCT‐A examination. All five affected eyes had alterations in density of the radial peripapillary microvascular network at the level of retinal nerve fibre layer, including an eye of a patient treated with idebenone that underwent almost full recovery (best corrected visual acuity 0.87). Interestingly, the other eye showed normal ocular findings 14 months after onset. Results of OCT‐A examination in this eye were unfortunately inconclusive due to a delineation error. At the level of the ganglion cell layer differences could be also noted, but only in two severely affected individuals. There were no differences between unaffected mutation carriers and control eyes. Conclusion Optical coherence tomography angiography scans confirmed that the peripapillary microvascular network is highly abnormal in eyes manifesting visual impairment due to LHON. These findings support the hypothesis that microangiopathy contributes to the development of vision loss in this mitochondrial disorder